Chapter 3: A Big Surprise
"Anne, come on! Open up!" Sprig said, trying to open the doors.
He quickly realized that they were tied shut, so he and Polly took the long way back into the house. Fortunately the door in the living room floor
could still open. Sprig and Polly raced down into the basement and saw Anne on her bed, looking pathetic.
"Hey, Anne. The bird's gone." Sprig said.
"It wasn't even that big." Polly added.
"Sure, right now it isn't." Anne miserably replied. "But what about when I'm a lot smaller? At this rate, I can't even leave the house anymore."
Anne turned away from them and let some tears fall down her face. Sprig needed to come up with something that would make Anne feel better. Then an idea came to him.
"You wanna try on some new clothes?"
"Huh?" Anne turned back around full of confusion.
"Think about it." Sprig explained while walking to the bed. "Now that you're our size, you can wear a lot of what we wear. Pants, shirts, hats, you
name it. It could be fun. What do you say?"
He wrapped his arm around her in a buddy manner while waiting for an answer. Anne thought about it and then happily said "Let's do it."
"Ugh. Count me out." Polly hopped back up the stairs on her own.
Sprig and Anne went up shortly after untying the other doors. They ran past Hop-Pop on their way to Sprig's room.
"Well at least Anne's feeling a little better." Hop-Pop thought.
Sprig and Anne entered the former's room and got started. Sprig handed Anne an extra hat and shirt. Anne put them on and looked in the mirror.
"You know, I actually did this before once while you weren't looking." Anne confessed. "But this time I look even better with these on."
She then pretended to be a frog just like last time. Sprig and Anne laughed and experimented with more clothes. They even had some pictures taken with Anne's phone. After running out of clothes to play with, they snuck down into Hop-Pop's room. Once they opened his closet, Anne started trying some of his clothes on. Obviously they were all too wide for Anne, but she and Sprig got a few laughs out of it. Of course they had to laugh quietly so that they didn't get caught in the act.
"Ooh, I know. Sprig, hand me those foot thingies." Anne said back in just her usual clothes.
While Sprig picked out a pair, Anne took off her only shoe and then both her socks at the same time. However, she and Sprig saw something that wasn't supposed to be the way it is now.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Anne screamed.
"What happened!?" Hop-Pop cried as he barged through the door. "And what are yew doing in my room!?"
"Will you stop screaming, Anne!?" Polly demanded as she entered the room as well.
The look on Anne's face was of pure terror like she saw a ghost, but she was still able to speak.
"We were just playing with your clothes, Hop-Pop. And when I took my socks off, we saw this!"
Polly and Hop-Pop looked where Anne was pointing and gasped at what they saw. Anne's feet were blue.
"Is there some kind of blue-leg disease too?" Anne worriedly asked.
"No, Anne. Only red-leg." Hop-Pop assured.
"Uh, Anne. I think your feet are more than just blue." Sprig said with a closer look.
Anne examined her feet and even touched them. She felt something slimy and sticky, not to mention familiar.
"Oh no." she said. "I'm not shrinking. I'm... turning into a frog!"
All three Plantars were speechless by this revelation. After a moment, Polly was the first to say something.
"Aww, that means you won't get smaller than me."
"This is serious, Polly!" Anne yelled. "I could be stuck as a frog forever! How am I supposed to go home like this!? My own parents probably wouldn't recognize me!"
"I don't know, Anne. Your hair kinda sticks out." Sprig said.
"Not helping!" Anne said.
Suddenly her toes became fewer and more frog-like.
"Why is this happening!?"
"Well, I hear sometimes a curse is based on the actions of the individual. Perhaps yew said something offensive by mistake." Hop-Pop guessed. "Either that, or maybe spending too much time here somehow effected yer body. But I'm just grasping at straws now."
That was the last straw for Anne. Not as in anger, but as in fear and sorrow. The idea of permanently being something else was bad enough, but now her time in Amphibia could be ruining her life even after she grew to like this world.
"NO!" Anne cried out.
She ran out of Hop-Pop's room, then out of the house with nothing more than tears and the desire to be alone. The Plantars all called for her, but she completely ignored them. Anne kept running until she realized that she was almost in the main part of town.
"Oh no! What was I thinking, going this way!?"
She rushed behind a random house before anyone could see her. She then looked down to find that the color blue had been crawling up her legs while she was running and now it was finishing up said legs. Her back slid down the wall before she sat with her arms hugging her legs. She felt completely defeated, unsure of how to deal with her situation. Then she heard someone speak.
"I wasn't expecting to see you again yet."
Anne turned her head, frightened by the thought of being seen with frog legs. Luckily, it was only Maddie with a basket of bread.
"Oh thank goodness it's you." Anne got up and ran to Maddie. "The curse isn't what we thought it was! Look!"
She held up one of her legs in the air, but only briefly just in case. "First a bird! Now This!"
"Hmm, I've seen frogs get changed, but never any living thing changing into a frog." Maddie said. "Unless you count tadpoles. Well at least I can
look in the right place for an answer now."
"Anne! There you are!" Sprig called as he ran up to his best friend with Hop-Pop and Polly in tow.
"Don't go running off like that again, Anne!" Hop-Pop scolded. "Yew had us all worried!"
"I'm sorry. I just didn't know what else to do." Anne said as she rubbed her arm. "How would you guys feel if you were turning into humans?"
"As long as I got legs, I wouldn't complain." Polly commented.
Anne chuckled at that answer. Then two of her fingers started feeling funny. She looked at her hands in time to watch her pinky fingers shrink away.
"Ah! My pinkies are gone!"
"But you're not pink." Sprig said.
"Oh why does stuff like this keep happening to me?!" Anne got so frustrated, she started jumping in anger with her eyes closed. "Why!? Why!? Why!? Why!? Why!?..."
BONK! "Ow!" Anne fell on her butt and rubbed her head. "What hit me?"
"WAH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Polly laughed at Anne's expense.
"Anne, look up." Sprig said while pointing to the sky.
Anne did as she was asked and saw a big branch several feet high right over her.
"You mean I just jumped that high?"
Sprig nodded. Anne stood up and hopped again, avoiding the branch this time. She went several feet into the air again and found it amazing. When she landed, she looked at herself and smiled a little at the potential perks of her situation.
"Maybe this won't be so bad after all." she admitted. "I've sometimes wondered what it's like being a frog."
"You mean like that picture you once drew?" Polly snickered.
Anne blew a raspberry at Polly, but then stopped when she saw her tongue. It was three times it's original length and yellow.
"Maybe we should get back home before anyone else sees yew." Hop-Pop suggested.
"Good idea, H.P." Anne agreed. "See ya, Maddie."
"Bye." Maddie said before walking away.
As Anne and the Plantars walked home, she noticed that her hands had started to turn blue as well. By the time they reached the front door and went inside, the blue was up to Anne's elbows. Out of curiosity, Anne lifted her shirt and found her torso now changing color.
"I'm gonna go to my room." she said before opening the door to her room.
After heading down and sitting on her bed, Anne pulled out a magazine and tried to read it. However, one of her hands got stuck to a page. She
carefully pulled it off, but now her other hand got stuck. She shook the magazine off, but then her foot got stuck to her bed sheets. Anne kept on
struggling and getting her hands and feet stuck to random things in the room, falling off the bed at some point.
"HOW DO FROGS EVEN DO THIIIS!?"
The door then opened and down came Hop-Pop.
"Is everything alright, Anne?" he asked.
"No! I keep getting stuck." Anne complained while sitting on the floor with her hands and feet all covered with stuff.
"Well just be glad yer not sick too." Hop-Pop helped Anne get all of the things off of her. "Now come with me. There's something I'd like to show yew."
Anne followed Hop-Pop to his room where he pulled out a big trunk and opened it to reveal what was inside. Clothing that Anne hadn't seen anyone wear before. Some were shirts and pants for men and boys and the rest were dresses for women and girls.
"Woah, it's like getting free gifts from a mall." Anne said with wide sparkling eyes.
"I figured since yew don't really want anyone to know about this, then maybe yew should dress differently for a while." Hop-Pop explained.
"Thanks, H.P." Anne pulled one of the dresses out to look at it. "Where did you get all of these?"
"They belonged to Sprig and Polly's parents." Hop-Pop answered with a hint of sorrow.
Anne dropped what she was holding and froze. She figured for some time that something bad happened to the missing Plantar family members for obvious reasons, but didn't know what exactly. She would've asked him about it, but it seemed too touchy of a subject.
"I can't do this to you." she said.
"Yes yew can, Anne." Hop-Pop assured. "If they were still alive, they would've lended these to yew themselves."
Anne then ran up to Hop-Pop and gave him a big hug. After being surprised by Anne's gratitude, Hop-Pop hugged back.
"While yer picking out what to wear, I'm gonna get something for yer hair." Hop-Pop said as he and Anne let go. "I'm not much of a hair stylist, but
I'll do what I can."
While Anne looked through her options on her own, she wondered how far her change was now. So she checked her arms, looked down her shirt, and felt her head and neck.
"Yup, all that's left is my head." Anne went back to choosing her new outfit.
Then she found something perfect. It was a purple short sleeved dress that seemed to only go down to the knees. There wasn't much else to the dress, but Anne loved it. Shortly after, Hop-Pop returned with a few things.
"I see yew made up yer mind." he said. "Let's start with cleaning yer hair."
"Okay, but I can handle the rest myself."
Anne sat down while Hop-Pop combed through her hair, getting all of the leaves and sticks out. Once he was done, he went to start the next step. But Anne held her hand up to stop him.
"Before we actually put my disguise on, could I look at my human face possibly for the last time?"
"Go ahead." Hop-Pop understood.
Anne got up and went all the way to the full body mirror. Sprig and Polly were curious and followed her. They watched as Anne stood before the mirror, feeling the sides of her face. It was obvious what was going on, so Sprig went over and tried to comfort her again. But before he could say anything, it happened. The blue had begun to takeover the last of Anne's humanity.
"Ahhh!" Anne didn't expect to see it happen and was taken by surprise.
She closed her eyes and turned away from the mirror. Despite that, she could still feel it effecting her nose, ears, and mouth. Hop-Pop came over to the kids after hearing her scream again. After about a minute, Anne then asked her thoughts out loud.
"I'm all frog now, aren't I?"
"Yeah, but you should really see yourself." Sprig said.
"Sprig's right." Hop-Pop chimed in. "I think you'll like it."
Anne reluctantly turned back around and slowly opened one eye. The moment she saw herself, her other eye opened as well. If the blue frog in the mirror had been someone else, Anne might've found it to be cute.
"Wow. That's me?" she said. "I... don't look half bad."
"Especially compared to your ugly self." Polly teased.
"Why you." Anne tried to get Polly.
Hop-Pop stopped her while also grabbing Polly.
"Alright, that's enough! Polly, no more harassing for today. And Anne, yew still need to disguise yourself."
"Oh yeah." Anne went back to Hop-Pop's bedroom, looking forward to the dress and curious as to how her once again changed life will be.
A.N.: So, did I fool you? Or did you already figure out what was really happening?